The Co-operative Group is seeking reforms to slash the size of its board to comprise mainly of independent directors alongside two executives.
Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

The Co-operative Group's board will try to put more than a year of turmoil behind it on Saturday by seeking approval for changes to how Britain's biggest mutual is governed.

Delegates representing regional cooperatives and independent societies will vote at a meeting in Manchester on proposals designed to run the group in a more business-like way after governance failings were blamed partly for its near-collapse.

Despite concessions made by the board, the reforms are deeply unpopular with many members and activists. With a majority vote of two-thirds required, approval is far from certain.

The main proposal is to slash the size of the board and have it made up mainly of independent directors alongside two executives.

The unwieldy board, comprising mainly member representatives with little business experience, has been blamed for failing to control top managers for approving the Co-op Bank's near-fatal merger with Britannia Building society. Britannia's bad debts helped blow a £1.5bn hole in finances of the bank, whose woes were largely to blame for the group's £2.5bn loss last year.

Myners called for no member-elected directors but in a concession to his critics the reforms provide for three to sit alongside the executives and six independents.

There will also be a 100-strong membership council to hold the board to account. They will elect a "senate" of 15 to lead talks with the board.

Some former critics of Myners' proposals have decided to back the changes.

Ben Reid, chief executive of the Midcounties cooperative, the biggest independent cooperative society, said: "We are broadly supportive. We're not happy with all the details but we all know that things need to change so we need to get past Saturday and move on."

The meeting will be open to debate but there will be no chance to amend the new rules. Critics are also unhappy that the rules will be difficult to change in future.

Jo Bird, a director at Cooperative Business Consultants, said: "I'm very disappointed that the board has chosen to go about it in this way and made it all or nothing and has not encouraged or allowed amendments. The best outcome would be a withdrawal or a rejection of the proposals and more genuine consultation with the wider membership."

If the rules are passed, critics will try to make sure the council and senate elections in May produce people willing to preserve the group's distinctiveness.

Jim Lee, a cooperative activist for more than 20 years, said: "If we get to next May and we have an unelected board running the business with no accountability I think at that point I would cease to be interested."